Ben

Ben at one year

           I've loved animals of all shapes and sizes since I was a small child. When I was young I had pet goldfish, caterpillars my mom didn't want eating her flowers, snails we found on the porch, several gerbils and mice and of course my family had cats. My true love was dogs.

          Ever since I was little I wanted a dog. My (13 house) neighborhood had around 7 dogs in it when I was little and most of my friends had dogs so I got to spend time around them but I always wanted a dog to call my own. Just to give you an idea, all of my journal entries and artwork from Kindergarten involved dogs, all of my t-shirts had dogs on them, and in sixth grade my teacher banned me from reading books about dogs for his class... To say I was obsessed wouldn't be exaggerating. I always called being the dog when my siblings and the babysitters played house and other times I would treat my little brother like a puppy giving him goldfish as rewards. When I was young my parents had reasons for not letting me get a dog, I wasn't responsible enough, or my siblings were too little. One of the last excuses was that we were moving, in 5th grade we put our house up for sale and expected to move at any time. We bought a house in Washington the next summer.

          When we got to Washington I asked my mom if we could get a dog. At this point we were living in a one bedroom apartment that my dad had been living in (so he could work out here) while we waited for the moving truck to come. She said that after we moved into the house I could start looking for a dog. So of course about a week later when we were sleeping at the house I asked if I could start looking. She told me I could start looking for a dog as soon as I had my room unpacked. Needless to say I unpacked my room very rapidly and two days later started my search.

Ben chillin while we raked leaves

           This search took a lot of consideration. What breed of dog to get? Where to find this dog? When I started I knew one thing, I wanted a puppy! A puppy that would be all mine that I could name and train and love. I wanted a male and I wanted to name him Ben or Taylor. I had had many favorite dog breeds over the years. When I was young I loved beagles, golden retrievers, shelties, mastiffs, dachshunds, dalmations, german shepherds, and many others. I ended up deciding on a border collie as my ideal puppy. Now for where to look... I decided I didn't want to get a puppy from a breeder because they are really expensive and I didn't actually care if it was a purebred dog. So I first looked in the newspaper.

          There was an add for a border collie mix puppy! How perfect? I had my mom call the number listed and they talked for a while. When she got off the phone my mom said the lady who had the puppy was emailing her a picture and that it was half border collie, half eskimo dog. Before showing me the picture she told me the lady had said the puppy had an ugly face, no permanent name and that she had bought the puppy but decided she couldn't handle 3 kids, an older dog and a puppy. When I saw the picture I fell in love with his sister first and then him. (There were only two dogs in the photo, his sibling was mostly black with white paws and a smidge of white on her face). He did have a silly looking face as it was mostly white and he was all black and it was kind of shaped funny but I decided he was perfect anyway. I also decided to call him Ben. 

Ben and Rica

          My mom called the lady back and asked when we could come see the puppy. She said anytime would work but I had to wait a day because my mom was a little busy that week. The next day my mom and I went to Petco and bought dog food and bowls, a leash, a collar, and some toys. Two days later my mom, siblings and I drove out to the lady's house to look at the puppy. When I saw him I knew I would be taking him home. The crate we had brought didn't fit him so he rode on my lap the whole way home. It's been true puppy love ever since. I've had other puppies through my house now Ben will always be my first. Here are some weird coincidences about Ben, his former home had 3 children, the two oldest were girls and the youngest was a boy. Also when the woman brought the puppy home the boy asked if he could name the puppy Eleanor (he didn't yet know it was a girl).

          I trained Ben myself. Teaching him some basic commands on his own and later taking him to obedience classes where I was the only child handler in the class. He knows all of the basic commands, how to walk well on a leash, and many tricks. He is great with children, other dogs, and is ok with cats (ignores them if they ignore him). He is perfect with the Guide Dog puppies we have brought through my house, ignoring them most of the time, growling at them if they go in "his place", leaving them alone while they eat, and being a good role model.

Ben <3 

          I will post stories about each of my Guide Dog puppies later so you can look forward to those someday!

Great things about today: Spicy (kitten) climbing on my shoulders, playing with Pepsi, texting Andrew, country music, mac and cheese, watching Molly watch a little kid, running free of pain! remembering all of the cereal/protein/granola bars under my bed.